Thursday, November 21, 2002, Chandigarh, India





National Capital Region--Delhi

W O R L D

PML (Q) candidate likely to be PM

Islamabad, November 20
Mr Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali of the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q is likely to be elected by Parliament tomorrow as the country’s first Prime Minister tomorrow after the 1999 coup, if the party’s victory in the elections for speaker and deputy speaker is any indication.

Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, prime ministerial candidate of the pro-military Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam), arrives at parliament
Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali (centre), prime ministerial candidate of the pro-military Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam), arrives at parliament with party leaders Shaikh Rasheed (right) and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussein (left) to submit his nomination papers in Islamabad on Wednesday. — Reuters photo

We withstood Indian pressure, asserts Pervez
Islamabad, November 20
Asserting that he would continue to play his role despite stiff opposition mounted by mainstream political and religious parties, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today said one of the prime achievements of his rule was not succumbing to the pressure from India.



An Afghan girl smiles as she enjoys a show
An Afghan girl smiles as she enjoys a show organised by a centre for street working and poor children in Kabul on Wednesday. The centre takes care of some 2,400 children who are working on the streets of Kabul in jobs including polishing shoes, selling newspapers, or collecting scrap materials.
— Reuters

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS
50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

Lanka wants India’s presence at conference
Colombo, November 20
Sri Lanka is expected to make a determined bid tomorrow to get India to participate in a donor conference in Oslo next week, when a senior minister involved in the peace process visits New Delhi, officials said today.

Punjabis vow to fight terrorism
New York, November 20
Speakers at an international Punjabi conference condemned the September 11 strikes that razed the World Trade Center, killing thousands, and vowed to continue support to the US-led war against terrorism.

“Lagaan” released in China
Beijing, November 20
Bollywood blockbuster “Lagaan” today became the first Indian movie to be released in China nationwide.

French honour for Adoor’s film
London, November 20
Malayalam film, “Mathilukal (The Walls)” by well-known Director Adoor Gopalakrishnan has been adjudged the best film at the just-concluded 12th international film festival for young people in Paris.

EARLIER STORIES

 
Bad! King of pop turns dangerous
Berlin, November 20
Perhaps taking a tip from his album titles, Michael Jackson is treating Berliners to antics described by local pundits as bad, dangerous and a real thriller. European media today were full of pictures showing the grinning king of pop dangling an infant from the window of his fourth-floor hotel suite in Berlin, outside of which only a short time earlier several people were injured as fans surged towards the hotel. 



Popstar Michael Jackson holds an unidentified child, covered with a towel, as he looks down to fans out of a window after he arrived at a Berlin hotel on Wednesday. Michael Jackson is in Berlin to be awarded with the prestigious Bambi 2002 Media Award for his lifetime achievement. — Reuters photo

Popstar Michael Jackson holds an unidentified child

Video

A massive crowd mourns the death of an executed Pakistani in one of the largest funeral prayers in Quetta.
(28k, 56k)

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PML (Q) candidate likely to be PM

Islamabad, November 20
Mr Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali of the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q is likely to be elected by Parliament tomorrow as the country’s first Prime Minister tomorrow after the 1999 coup, if the party’s victory in the elections for speaker and deputy speaker is any indication.

The PML (Q), which has emerged as the largest single party in the October 10 elections with 118 seats, has named Mr Jamali, former Balochistan chief minister, as its Prime Ministerial candidate. It also has the support of 10 members of former premier Benazir Bhutto’s PPP, who broke away from the party.

Apparently buoyed by the victory of the PML (Q)’s candidate for the posts of speaker and deputy speaker yesterday, President Pervez Musharraf announced that the new National Assembly will elect the Prime Minister tomorrow.

A one-sentence notification by the assembly secretariat issued last night said the 334-member House would meet on November 21 “for the purpose of ascertainment of the member who commands the confidence of the majority of the members of the assembly”.

Significantly the “ascertainment” or election of the Prime Minister would be done by show of hands by the House members and not by secret ballot as was in the case of elections for the speaker and deputy speaker.

The six-party alliance of hardline Islamists Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), which yesterday had said it would sit in the opposition after the defeat of its candidate Liaqat Baloch in the speakership election, today fielded Mr Maulana Fazlur Rehman for the post of Prime Minister. Ms Benazir Bhutto’s PPP has also decided to contest but has not named its candidate so far.

The PML (Q) is likely to clinch the post as its candidates Amir Hussain and Sardar Yacub won with a comfortable majority in a three-cornered contest. PTI

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We withstood Indian pressure, asserts Pervez

Islamabad, November 20
Asserting that he would continue to play his role despite stiff opposition mounted by mainstream political and religious parties, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today said one of the prime achievements of his rule was not succumbing to the pressure from India.

Addressing the nation over television and radio ahead of the election of Prime Minister tomorrow, General Musharraf said he would continue to play his role for the development and security of the country.

In his first address to the nation after the October 10 general elections, the military ruler said he had fulfilled all promises made when he took over power.

Outlining his foreign policy achievements, President Musharraf said his government had upheld the honour and dignity of Pakistan, had not succumbed to Indian pressure and had highlighted the Kashmir cause at all international fora.

He said Pakistan had also raised Islamic causes, had apprised the world of the utility of religious institutions and had raised the issue of Indian “atrocities” against Muslims in Gujarat at the UN. PTI

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Lanka wants India’s presence at conference

Colombo, November 20
Sri Lanka is expected to make a determined bid tomorrow to get India to participate in a donor conference in Oslo next week, when a senior minister involved in the peace process visits New Delhi, officials said today.

Economic Reforms Minister Milinda Moragoda, one of the government negotiators in the ongoing peace talks, is expected to call on Indian leaders, including Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha, in an attempt to procure India’s participation in the donors’ meeting on November 25.

India has serious reservations about joining the “peace support meeting” organised by peace facilitator Norway, as it will then be sharing a platform with the outlawed LTTE.

No official decision has been disclosed on whether India will participate in the conference, but Sri Lanka is hoping that at least India’s Ambassador in Norway, Mr Gopalkrishna Gandhi, will be present.

The USA, Britain, Canada and Australia will be represented at a high level in Oslo.

It is clear that the government here badly wants India to be present, as the influential neighbour’s absence may be seen as a setback to the peace initiative.

As far as the LTTE is concerned, it will be an opportunity to legitimise itself in India’s eyes for the first time since 1992, when it was banned for assassinating Rajiv Gandhi a year earlier. PTI

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Punjabis vow to fight terrorism

New York, November 20
Speakers at an international Punjabi conference condemned the September 11 strikes that razed the World Trade Center (WTC), killing thousands, and vowed to continue support to the US-led war against terrorism.

India’s International Council of Punjabis (ICP) said the September 11 events revived memories of a bloody decade of Punjab unrest during which thousands of innocents fell victim to terrorist bullets.

“Hijacking planes and driving them into buildings are no justification for any religious or political objective. Such acts are condemnable,’’ ICP chief Manjit Singh told a weekend anti-terror conference at New York’s India House.

While pledging support to the international community in its fight against terror, speakers also called for efforts towards ending racial hate that gripped the West, especially the USA, after terrorists of West Asian origin struck the symbols of US wealth and military might last year.

“Equally condemnable is racial rampage that followed 9/11. The killing of Arizona gas station owner Balbir Singh Sodhi on September 15 in one such attack is an attack on human rights. There should be no place for racial hate in any civilised society,’’ remarked senior journalist Pushpinder Singh.

Earlier this month, a US court postponed the trial of accused Frank Silva Roque (42), for three months to let experts evaluate his mental health and give defence attorneys more time to prepare.

Prosecutors say Roque drove to a gasoline station on September 15, 2001, and fatally shot owner Sodhi, who wore a turban in accordance with his Sikh faith. He may have been mistaken for an Arab, the prosecutors say.

“I think Sodhi’s killing exposed low levels of ethnic knowledge in a multicultural society. Mass education campaigns about different cultures and faiths is urgently required in such places,’’ Mr Pushpinder Singh said. UNI

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Lagaan” released in China

Beijing, November 20
Bollywood blockbuster “Lagaan” today became the first Indian movie to be released in China nationwide, rekindling memories of the Raj Kapoor era when Indian films were immensely popular in the neighbouring communist nation.

The Oscar best foreign film nominee 2002, “Lagaan” is the first Indian film that has been released nationwide in China, Joe Zhang, an official from the Columbia Tri Star Film Distributors International said.

“Continuing with its international success and now reaching here, ‘Lagaan’ brings us a great chance to break the wrong idea that “good movies are American ones”, Mr Zhang said.

“Now we are reminded of the times when Raj Kapoor’s films like “Awara” were a big hit in China,” he said.

The premiere was well-attended with well-wishers of India, film buffs as well as a host of Chinese media thronging the venue. PTI

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French honour for Adoor’s film

London, November 20
Malayalam film, “Mathilukal (The Walls)” by well-known Director Adoor Gopalakrishnan has been adjudged the best film at the just-concluded 12th international film festival for young people in Paris.

Adoor also received the Best Director Award for the film.

The prize for the best film carries a cash award of Euros 6,500, while that for the best director, purses Euro 1500.

Adoor Gopalakrishnan said here today that he would be leaving for Paris tomorrow to receive the awards.

Mathilukal has already received several national awards and the international film critic award in Venice in 1990. PTI

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Bad! King of pop turns dangerous

U.S. entertainer and popstar Michael Jackson gives a thumbs up
U.S. entertainer and popstar Michael Jackson gives a thumbs up as he holds a poster denouncing the Press out of his Berlin hotel room on Wednesday.
— Reuters photo

Berlin, November 20
Perhaps taking a tip from his album titles, Michael Jackson is treating Berliners to antics described by local pundits as bad, dangerous and a real thriller.

European media today were full of pictures showing the grinning king of pop dangling an infant from the window of his fourth-floor hotel suite in Berlin, outside of which only a short time earlier several people were injured as fans surged towards the hotel. One elderly passerby was hospitalised with head injuries after being pushed to the pavement by the throngs.

Crowds of fans, who had been cheering to catch a glimpse of their idol, fell silent except for gasps of horror as Jacko dangled the fair-skinned baby - its head covered in a white handkerchief and its bare feet kicking frantically - over the balcony railing of his presidential suite in the posh Adlon Hotel.

Waving with one hand while holding the struggling child awkwardly around its shoulders with the other, the smiling star posed for fans for heart-stopping moments before pulling the infant back inside. Seconds later, he re-emerged at the window to hurl a towel into the crowd waiting below.

He then showed off another youngster, who appeared to be about four or five years old and was also covered with a white cloth to hide its identity - presumably from would-be kidnappers.

The 44-year-old star has two children by former wife Debbie Rowe. They are a boy Prince Michael (5) and a girl Paris Michael Katherine, 4. In addition, he has another child, the mother of whom has never been revealed. That infant is a nine-month-old boy called Prince Michael II - dubbed “No. 3” by the tabloid press.

Apparently it was that baby which was dangled out the window. But with all the mystery surrounding Jackson’s visit, even that is difficult to ascertain. DPA

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UN warning on diseases

United Nations, November 20
The world will see emergence of old diseases and new infections unless “urgent and strategic” action is taken to ensure adequate funding, research and global immunisation, the United Nations has warned.

Vaccines do not reach the populations that need them most, said the reports jointly prepared by the WHO, UNICEF and the World Bank. PTI

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Daily office burnt over pageant report

Kaduna (Nigeria), November 20
Islamic militants burned down the regional office of a leading Nigerian newspaper today after it referred to Prophet Mohammad in a report on the Miss World pageant in Nigeria, witnesses said. The fundamentalist Nigerian Muslim Umma, declaring a “serious religious emergency” immediately, issued a statement, calling on the government to stop the December 7 pageant.

The incident triggered tension in other parts of the predominantly Islamic region where sectarian riots have killed thousands in the past three years. Reuters

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GLOBAL MONITOR


Protesters throw a Molotov cocktail at troops
Protesters throw a Molotov cocktail at troops during protests in Caracas on Wednesday. Venezuelan National Guard troops fired tear gas and shot gun pellets to keep apart militant supporters of President Hugo Chavez and opposition marchers who were protesting against the government's military takeover of the city police force. — Reuters

NS KEEP THEM AWAKE
BERLIN:
A group of weary Berliners have gone to court to try to close down a swingers’ club on the ground floor of their building whose members’ moans of pleasure and screams of delight are keeping them awake. “My wife has to reach for the ear plugs every night because the unmistakable sounds of sexual intercourse can be heard throughout the building,” said one lawyer who lives on the first floor, directly above the club known as “Zwielicht” — a German word meaning both “twilight” and “dubious”. “We’ve been forced to come up with our own noise to drown out the sounds from down below,” he added. Reuters

ROBBERS SAY SORRY TO VICTIM
SINGAPORE:
A pair of polite robbers told an elderly Singaporean to empty his pockets while apologising for their actions, saying they had no choice as “times are bad,” according to a report. Law Siew Hong (73) was on his way home when the robbery took place on entering the lift, The Straits Times said. DPA

SEXY CALENDAR CRAZE
ROME:
Images of Madonna always get lots of exposure in Italy in the run-up to Christmas, but this year the mother of Jesus is completely naked. And then some. In a 2003 calendar on sale at news stands countrywide, a glamour photograph has shot 12 months of undressed women in provocative scenes inspired by the life of Christ. It’s all part of a sexy calendar craze that takes Italy by storm every year, with top models and TV celebrities baring all in what has become a 10 million euro (dollar) business. Reuters

DOC TO CONDUCT PUBLIC AUTOPSY
LONDON:
A German doctor has said that he will conduct the first public autopsy in Britain in more than 170 years, even though an official has warned that he lacks the required licenses. Prof Gunther Von Hagens who conducted a controversial exhibition in Britain featuring “plastinated” human corpses, said he would stage the autopsy before a sellout crowd in London. AP

‘CONCUBINE AGE’ ENDS
HONG KONG:
The number of men being beaten up by their wives in Hong Kong has reportedly quadrupled in the past four years as women refuse to accept their husbands keeping mistresses. Experts say the trend signals how Hong Kong’s male-dominated society has moved away from the age of concubines when wives meekly accepted their husbands keeping mistresses in mainland China. The number of men who turned to social workers after being beaten up by their wives jumped from 39 cases in 1998 to 179 last year, the South China Morning Post reported. DPA

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PAK TIT-BITS

PERVEZ UNDER FIRE OVER NEW LAW
ISLAMABAD:
President Gen Pervez Musharraf came under sharp criticism on Wednesday for enacting an anti-terror law empowering security agencies to detain suspects for up to a year without charge. The London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International voiced “concern” that the new legislation violated a range of internationally-agreed human rights, while local press expressed fears that it could be used arbitrarily for political motives. AFP

PAK DOCTOR INTERROGATED
LAHORE:
A popular Pakistani surgeon was asked by US investigators during a month-long detention if he had helped the Al-Qaida develop nuclear as well as chemical and biological weapons. Dr Amir Aziz, an eminent orthopaedic surgeon who had treated Taliban and Al-Qaida patients, was delivered back to his home in the eastern city of Lahore before dawn on Tuesday after 29 days in the custody of the Pakistani military intelligence authorities. AFP

LeT LEADER FREED FROM HOUSE ARREST
ISLAMABAD:
Leader of Pakistan’s banned militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and prime suspect in the attack on Indian Parliament last year Hafeez Mohammad Saeed has been released from house arrest after receiving court orders, Yahya Mujahid, the spokesman for Jamaat al-Dawat, an organisation headed by Saeed, said. PTI
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